This is quite heavy to operate so you will also notice that there is a steel flap on a hinge with a chain. The first is the use of the large cast iron doors and the linkage and lever. The damper handles can be seen on the left Confused? You will be! The not yet mentioned elephant in the room (cab?) is the fire hole door.Ĥ079's firehole doors and flap. So the handles, left to right, are front front, front rear, rear front, rear rear. There are four on GWR 4-6-0s as the lower section of the ash pan is split in half by the rear driving wheel axle. By operating these, you can control the airflow to the underside of the fire. These operate flaps on the ash pan and are known as the damper doors. The pep pipe operates when the fireman's side injector is turned on. This is the hose that the fireman uses to hose down the cab to keep it clean and damp the coal to prevent dust. If it is below the level of the bottom one, you then put your injectors on as your boiler is very close to being too empty! Under the fireman's seat, is a small valve for the pep pipe. If you open them and steam comes out, the water level is below that point. If you open them and water comes out, there is water there. Most British locomotives have two gauge glasses, however, the Great Western Railway had to be different! The two large taps behind the gauge frame are called the test cocks. The little handle below it is the drain so you can empty it.Īll steam engines legally need two methods of reading the boiler water level. There is a linkage on the side with a handle and this turns the gauge frame on and off. It stops the glass tube from being broken by the crew accidentally and, if the gauge glass were to fail, it prevents the fast moving bits of glass from the resultant burst of steam from getting to the crew. It provides protection for both the glass itself and the crew. The box – the gauge glass protector – has two functions. This is the vertical glass tube in a glass box. How much water do you need to put in? Look no further than the gauge glass. These get the water from the tender and past the boiler pressure into the boiler. These, in combination with the tender water valves, are the feeds to the injectors. On the front of the fountain are either two or three large spherical valves with large bore pipes leading down to the floor. The gauge on the left is for steam heat pressure to the train, controlled by the mason's valve. The lagged pipe that leads down to the floor takes the low pressure steam to the train.ĥ322's mason's valve kept beautifully polishedĤ079's gauge glass protector. This is the pressure reducing valve for the steam heating for passenger coaches. A tall brass casting with a wound wire handle. On the far left of the fountain, we start with what is known as the mason's valve. Most of the little valves are shut off cocks for the various systems. This is known as the fountain and it is where the steam for almost all of the auxiliary services on the engine. If we turn back to the locomotive, we can see that on top of the boiler, there is a large casting with all manner of taps and valves coming out of it. One of 4079's water valve handles and 4079's steam fountain, with the mason's valve on left This meant the engine could pick up water on the move – about 3,000 gallons in a ‘scoop’! The two little handles are the water valves that turn the water on and allow it to flow in pipes towards the locomotive. This winds down a mechanism that was used for picking up water from troughs that were strategically placed at points on the main line. The other large handle is the water scoop. The loco wheels are only braked when the engine is in steam. On the tender engines, only the tender has a handbrake. It’s a good visual indicator and reminder. The chain is only put on the handle of the brake is on. The one on the right is the handbrake and there is a chain next to it. There are two large handles on pedestals. The large coal area and the water tank that surrounds it are self-explanatory as is the water gauge on the left as we look back.Ĥ079's handbrake and water scoop, with the gauge showing level of water in the tank behind it These are all pretty much the province of the fireman as well. There are also controls on the tender too. Whilst not 100% accurate, the vast majority of controls on the left are for the fireman and on the right are for the driver. We are going to draw a line down the middle of the backhead or the rear section of the boiler. We'll take a virtual tour of the cab of a Great Western Railway tender locomotive, mainly using photos of No. If you look in the cab of a Castle class express passenger engine or a Pannier tank shunting engine, there are a few differences, but not many. engines were pretty standardised by the 1920s. Let's take a look at the controls in a Great Western steam engine cab and find out what they do.
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